So where do you start?
Here’s a basic map to how you want to act:
I know all of you want to dive headfirst into making money online. Who doesn’t, really? You hear about guys making 6… 7… even 8 figure profits through affiliate marketing or owning your own website. It’s quite the dream. But this success for any of us wasn’t dreamed over night.
You have to start by obtaining knowledge. You can have 1 million bucks, and blow it all without the proper education in affiliate marketing. And there is plenty of places to get that knowledge. Forums, blogs, conventions, case studies and best of all, other online marketers. Make some friends in the industry and you’ll be giving yourself a huge advantage.
Putting together a plan is important. You might think a lot of us are fly-by-night hit and run campaign building machines, but the truth of the matter is those guys don’t last more than a few months in the industry. They strike it rich with one campaign and head back to the office 1 year later because they can’t afford the lease on their new Ferrari.
You need to have a plan; simple as that. This is a real business, and as such, you should know your basic daily schedule, as well as weekly, monthly and more long term plans.
But even the best plans fail… when you fail to integrate them. Start putting your plans in motion. Put the investment down, and try your luck. If you don’t succeed, you look back on your plan, go back and gain more knowledge, rewrite the plan, and head back to work.
Call your own shots as to what you think will work best for you, because I could blab on and off here about why Facebook is great, or why PoF should be your first traffic source, but I’ll leave that up to you!
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Copyright © 2006-2011 JustinDupre.com
Justin,
Just wanted to send a quick note to say I'm enjoying your newsletter and posts. I am just starting to dabble in this business, but I wanted to let you know that you were the one who inspired me. Somehow I came across your page and then started researching all the other folks out there.
I appreciate your insight, and have enjoyed reading your stuff so far. I'm a long way from making anything significant out of my journey, but I've been doing exactly what you recommend in this post- reading, learning, coming up with a plan. I'm going to spend a couple more months in this learning phase before I'll feel comfortable jumping in deeper.
That's all from me. Keep up the good work. I'll be following…
Matt
Hi Justin
Theres a lot to be said for looking at the route causes for success and failure, so for example if you do something that suceeds, ask yourself why? correspondingly if it fails ask the same question.
Hopefully then you should have a picure of what strategies to follow and what to send to the waste basket.
The knowledge thing is a fundamental point as without that basic knowledge you wont be equipped to deal with different issues going forward .
From a product knowledge point of view – I liken it to someone in a surf board shop selling surf boards to surfers but knows nothing about surfing, compared to the guy next door who is a keen surfer, has tested different products and can give an informed view on what is hot etc.
From a market knowledge point of view you need to know how to target your audience and how to put together offerings which is more fundamental online to the product knowledge in my mind
Regards
Pete
Let me put it this way – I've been blogging for about 8 months, and I haven't even ATTEMPTED to monetize my site. Why? I don't want to come off as someone who is focused on money and nothing else.
I care about building up my community. In the long run, that will earn me more money, believe it or not. If you just bombard everyone on your site with ads or affiliate links, they won't come back. If you keep the ads and links off, however, they'll continue to build up and will be willing to purchase stuff from you, go to your affiliate links, or click your adds.
Great post, Justin! :D
I have to agree. That's exactly how I got started, but I would add another step to that.
1. Gaining Knowledge
2. Planning
3. Act on the Plan
4. Test & Experiment
- Johnathan Diaz
Great post Justin! I think boiling it down to those three keys works really well. Too many people get into the business initially thinking that they don't have to have any real plan. Just put up a website or do some PPC marketing and the money starts pouring in. If you don't take the time to learn about the industry and put together a plan, and then execute, your chances for success very slim.
Good stuff Justin! You already basically said this, but a simpler way would be:
4. Repeat as needed
@Joe There is merit in what you say. But there is also a school of thought that readers should be either exposed to advertising from the beginning, or incrementally exposed to monetizaion. In the "make money online" niche, I think advertising is more acceptable. After all, what kind of marketer wouldn't try to sell me something?
You can care about your community and advertise products or services that they will benefit from at the same time.
I think you hit the nail on the head with saying it helps to make friends in the industry.
Masterminding and sharing what's REALLY working with eachother can be huge.